Kitchen Scales

TastyReuben

TastyReuben

Nosh 'n' Splosh
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Do you use a kitchen scale? Is yours a micro scale, or just a regular (macro?) scale? Is it something you frequently use, or it sits unloved in the back of some cabinet somewhere?

Here’s mine:

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It’s not a micro scale, but does weigh in grams and ounces.

I’m fairly certain I got it for free, and didn’t even want it, but it’s proved to be very useful over the years, and now I can’t imagine not having it.

Let’s see your kitchen scales!
 
I've got a simple flat bed (black) digital scale which displays either imperial or metric measures. It takes up no room and simply leans upright at the side of the counter. I use it a lot because of needing to weigh ingredients for writing up recipes.

I also have an accurate jewellers micro scale also digital. Its tiny and is in a kitchen drawer and is useful sometimes for tiny amounts.

I'll take some photos tomorrow.
 
I have the OXO Good Grips scale that also measures in ounces/pounds or grams. I use it a lot. The readout can be moved away from the scale so when you weigh something large, you can still read the weight. That is very handy, as I use my scale for food, and to weigh packages to be mailed.

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CD
 
I have scales because they're handy for measuring ingredients for published recipes (the first time anyway) and, as Morning Glory says, for accurately writing up recipes.

I had these for a number of years:

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But then gave them away and went digital.

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(Note: I've never weighed peppercorns in my life before. That was staged just for the image).
 
We have 2. One a small micro, about size of a cell phone. The other is larger and up to 10 pounds. Both digital and measure in both formats.
 
I´ve got a simple digital scale, and I use it frequently. Any recipe I develop/copy/steal has precise measurements in grams, so I don´t have to go inventing the next time I make it. Additionally, when I´m making spice mixtures, like garam masala, besebele, ras-al-hanout, etc., I like to have an exact measure of every ingredient, because an overdose of one spice or another can completely change the flavour of the mix.
 
karadekoolaid said:
I´ve got a simple digital scale, and I use it frequently. Any recipe I develop/copy/steal has precise measurements in grams, so I don´t have to go inventing the next time I make it. Additionally, when I´m making spice mixtures, like garam masala, besebele, ras-al-hanout, etc., I like to have an exact measure of every ingredient, because an overdose of one spice or another can completely change the flavour of the mix.
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When measuring spices/herbs I generally use spoons. I find weighing light items, e.g. dried sage, is a bit hit and miss.

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I use an OXO multiple times daily - converted pretty much all my recipes to grams, including liquids. it's way more accurate, and easy, to weight out 250 g of milk than the measuring cup routine.

kept it in the cabinet, got tired of opening the door all the time, made a custom "Scale House"
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CookieMonster said:
converted pretty much all my recipes to grams, including liquids. it's way more accurate, and easy, to weight out 250 g of milk than the measuring cup routine.
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That's fascinating as not many in the US use grams as we do in the UK/Europe and many other countries. Here we also have older recipes in lbs (pounds) and ounces and I'm old enough to remember when that was the norm. Sometimes (occasionally) I favour cup measures as they are super simple.
 
cooking for two people, being sloppy with measures usually makes for a mess.
if you're making six pancakes, the ratio of milk/flour needs to be pretty dang close - and grams is like mega-times more accurate than cups.
told this story before, dunno' if here....

for 30 years I used Ceresota Unbleached AP flour. our local market stopped carrying it.
so I switched to King Arthur Unbleached AP - no qualms, KA is a very decent brand.
every single recipe had to be re-annotated for flour amounts.
to get the same result with KA, flour (in grams) had to be reduce by ~20%
not an insignificant amount.
adjusting the amount in gram is like seriously way more easy than reducing 1.75 cups by 10% . . .

this is oatmeal raisin cookies:
first pix is reduced amount of KA - makes a cookie
second is "same/original" amount flour, but KA - makes paperless oatmeal-raisin muffins.
duplex.jpg



how many times have we seen people reporting: tried that recipe and it failed?

making pancakes/waffles/biscuits/bread/etc etc etc I'd much rather use grams and be able to repeat a success than sloppy cup measures and contribute to the local landfill.
 
Morning Glory said:
That's fascinating as not many in the US use grams as we do in the UK/Europe and many other countries. Here we also have older recipes in lbs (pounds) and ounces and I'm old enough to remember when that was the norm. Sometimes (occasionally) I favour cup measures as they are super simple.
Click to expand...

I think most experienced cooks in the US have worked in grams. It is not uncommon to find recipes in grams.

Metric measurements are more common now in other ways, too. My large rolling tool cabinet is full of mechanics tools in both SAE and Metric, and I use both of them regularly.

One area I outright prefer our system is temperature. Fahrenheit has about twice as many increments as Celsius, making it more precise.

CD
 
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